Democracy in Iraq is looking more like U.S. democracy every day

...and I don't mean that as a compliment.



Riverbend, the Iraqi blogger, explains:

Most people I've talked to aren't going to go to elections. It's simply too dangerous and there's a sense that nothing is going to be achieved anyway. The lists are more or less composed of people affiliated with the very same political parties whose leaders rode in on American tanks. Then you have a handful of tribal sheikhs. Yes- tribal sheikhs. Our country is going to be led by members of religious parties and tribal sheikhs- can anyone say Afghanistan? What's even more irritating is that election lists have to be checked and confirmed by none other than Sistani!! Sistani- the Iranian religious cleric. So basically, this war helped us make a transition from a secular country being run by a dictator to a chaotic country being run by a group of religious clerics. Now, can anyone say 'theocracy in sheeps clothing'?



Ahmad Chalabi is at the head of one of those lists- who would join a list with Ahmad Chalabi at its head?

The not exactly left-wing Washington Times reports that only 1% of Iraqis have registered.



Gee, it took us 200 years to reach that level of cynicism. They've done it before their first election. Impressive, no?



Remember Marshal Tito, the socialist Yugoslav strongman? He may have been a Stalinist dictator, but under his rule, Yugoslavia was quiet. Almost the moment he died, the old blood feuds in the region, which, yes, had been stewing for years, suddenly bubbled over, and countries with names like Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina were suddenly at war -- and in the headlines.



It's starting to look increasingly as if Saddam Hussein played the same role in Iraq -- the military strongman whose despotic rule kept the warring tribes within his country's borders, if not at peace, then at least quiet.